This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
Advances in the petroleum industry have allowed access to oil and gas drilling locations and reservoirs that were previously inaccessible due to technological limitations. For example, technological advances have allowed drilling of offshore wells at increasing water depths and in increasingly harsh environments, permitting oil and gas resource owners to successfully drill for otherwise inaccessible energy resources. However, as wells are drilled at increasing depths, additional components may be utilized to, for example, control and or maintain pressure at the wellbore (e.g., the hole that forms the well) and/or to prevent or direct the flow of fluids into and out of the wellbore. One component that may be utilized to accomplish this control and/or direction of fluids into and out of the wellbore is a blowout preventer (BOP).
BOPs tend to be large structures that consume a substantial amount of space. To deploy and retrieve the BOPs, typically there must be sufficient space between a moon pool and a drill floor of an offshore vessel to position the BOP for deployment and/or to retrieve the BOP for storage or maintenance. Moreover, as large offshore equipment (e.g., BOPs) increase in size, there may be an inadequate amount of distance between the moon pool and the drill floor of an offshore vessel to deploy and retrieve the equipment. One solution may be to raise the drill floor of the offshore vessel. However, this solution may negatively affect the center of gravity of the offshore vessel.